Custom Peterbilt Rod - Gizmoness

1/12The bare-metal aluminum cab is made from some hunks of an original '56 Peterbilt truck body dosed with liberal custom cues fabricated by James Crosby and Danny Davis. The design is anchored around the peaked windscreen and the pout in the roof just above it. The wheels are custom-made 20s: The rears are 10 inches wide and were made by Intro Wheels, and the fronts are 3 1/2-inch-wide billet blanks that were originally intended for a motorcycle. Bike tires are used up front, and the rears are Bridgestone 305/40R22s.

The best thing about this car is that it evades description. We're labelers by nature and by vocation-Pro Street, Pro Touring, Gasser, all those-but nothing's more exciting than when someone builds a car that escapes all the cliches. Before we'd ever slapped an eyeball across this particular creation, a guy said to us, "Have you seen that Peterbilt rat rod thing?" Rat? It sure ain't that. It draws on that low-buck trend for its basic bobber-truck stance but takes it way above and beyond.

As well as this thing ducks categorization, it may also confound you on make and model: It's a '56 Peterbilt semitruck cab artfully reconfigured by James Crosby Designs in Ontario, California. James is a longtime fabricator whose dad actually crewed on the Summers Bros. Goldenrod. He had a scheme for a bare-metal hot rod truck for a long time, but when Jimmy Shine sort of stole that thunder with his well-known ride, James decided to go funkier. "I always liked aluminum better than steel," he tells us. "And then I realized that the old Petes are aluminum." He scored the cab, had a design drawn up by Christian Dotson (see www.dotsondesign.com), then went to work with the help of friends Ed, Sal, and Evan at Total Cost Involved; Rob MacGregor at No Limit Engineering (www.nolimit.net); and Danny Davis of Danny Davis Race Cars.

Years ago, James heard famed (and deceased) chopper builder Indian Larry refer to a particularly far-out bike as having a lot of gizmoness. That was a solid enough reason for this rod to carry that moniker, since it's loaded with surprise features that, combined with its overall look, make it one of the coolest rods we've seen in a while-no matter what you may call it.